"The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" is a Spider-Man story written by Roger Stern, originally published in The Amazing Spider-Man #248 in 1984. In the story, a young fan of Spider-Man meets his hero.
This comic was elected as one of the "Top 10 Spider-Man stories of all time" by Wizard and is regarded as among the most-loved Spider-Man stories.
Plot
Young Tim Harrison lies in his bed. Newspaper captions say that he is the greatest Spider-Man fan in the world and has collected every article available on him, including a whole album of The Daily Bugle's retractions. Suddenly, Spider-Man comes into his room. In the following hours, the two trade anecdotes about Spider-Man's long career. The hero is surprised and touched by how much the boy adores him.
Tim asks who Spider-Man really is. Spider-Man surprisingly takes off his mask, identifies himself as Peter Parker, and retells the fateful night when his negligence let Uncle Ben die, causing him to fight crime. The story does not change Tim's admiration of his hero. Spider-Man departs; the last of the newspaper captions states that the boy's only wish is to meet the hero in person because he will die from leukemia in a few days.
Background
Most of Amazing #248 is Spider-Man's fight against Thunderball, but Stern's backup story is remembered much better than the main tale. According to Stern:
Partly, I'm sure that it sprang from a desire on my part to do a short human-interest story in the style of Will Eisner -- that's why the story is partially advanced through newspaper clippings...I was trying to be Eisneresque.
In other media
The story loosely inspired a two-part story ("Make a Wish/Attack of the Octobot") in the third season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The major difference is that the kid in question is a girl, named Taina. It's mentioned she has a twin brother named Timmy. Another reference to Tim is at the end of the episode where there is a plaque that reads "WISH COME TRUE FOUNDATION FOR TERMINALLY ILL CHILDREN".
Collected editions
The story has been reprinted several times and collected in various trade paperbacks including The Very Best of Spider-Man (December 1994, ISBN 0-7851-0045-8).
References
External links
- Amazing Spider-Man #248 at the Comic Book DB
- "Top 10 Spider-Man Stories". Retrieved 2007-10-12.Â
